Who we are

At the heart of our national identity is a set of values and messages that can be summed up in the phrase, "Isle of Man Giving you Freedom to Flourish". Over the centuries we have maintained our independence and relied on the skills and characteristics of our people to carve our own path in the world. As circumstances have changed, we have adapted so as to keep our superb quality of life and create the income to sustain it.

Our people truly have a unique spirit and the brand aims to capture this – our spirit of Man. They are genuine, colourful and multi-dimensional and participate fully in life on every dimension.

We are sustained by our enthusiasms – for our families, our language, our culture, our history, our performing arts, sports and our extraordinarily beautiful landscape. Because we play hard and live life to the full, our work is more productive – focused, inspired and committed. We are proud of the fact that each of us is more than a simple job title.

This is what lies at the very core of the Isle of Man – being able and encouraged to lead a fuller life. We are lucky. We have real choices, in our land of possibility.

This approach to life is an important ingredient in what makes the Isle of Man such a special place to live. Our independence has made us pragmatic. We have used our resourcefulness and resilience to retain control of our destiny, yet deep down our ingrained realism means that we know that we can never stay still but must always look for ways of making things better.

These are the characteristics that spawned some of the most successful new industries in our nation – our flourishing financial services industry, our growing film business, our booming shipping industry and our energetic e-business sector. The establishment and growth of these commercial sectors (amongst others) epitomises our ‘freedom to flourish’ standpoint.

It is people who lie at the centre of the Isle of Man and it is our loyalty to the community which will guarantee our future success, just as it has in the past. The foundations have been laid to allow our people to flourish. The advantageous tax system, the business grants and support, the investment in education, security and health are some of the examples of how the right environment has been created.

However, it is not simply a question of implementing the right economic model; at a more profound level it is the legacy of the innate security instilled in a people who have felt the advantage of a long, stable, continuous and independent history. That allows people to have ambitions and believe in their dreams.

We are undoubtedly freer to pursue our hopes and aspirations on the Isle of Man – the opportunities exist, it is up to us to grasp them as we see fit.